On His Father's Wings
by Torina Archelda
Summary: I don't think this has ever been done before, it's a very different twist on the usual way that the Dursleys view Harry, and a different Harry than the one you'd expect. The prologue will make everything clear, I promise. Please read and review!
1. Prologue

**THIS IS ONLY THE PROLOGUE! FURTHER CHAPTERS WILL BE MUCH LONGER, I USUALLY WRITE EXTREMELY LENGTHY CHAPTERS! PLEASE BEAR WITH ME, I JUST FELT THAT THIS NEEDED TO BE DONE THIS WAY. THANKS!**

On His Father's Wings

Prologue: Something New

The boy stared dully about him at the shimmering decorations and huge pile of presents that sat on his the table, and the people who had raised him celebrated his cousin's birthday. He wished that they would take notice of him the way they did his cousin, that they would love him deeply and unconditionally as they did the boy who was now turning eleven.

_Happy birthday to you…_

When he was younger, he had done everything he could to please them- done everything they asked him to right when they said, gotten good grades on his homework, studied almost constantly, smiled and nodded and said yes ma'am and yes sir with a grin, even when he felt like screaming at the falseness of it all. Nothing had made them love him, but even though he knew it was futile he refused to give up hope- his world was one of contradictions, after all, and it wasn't hard to hold onto one so simple.

_Happy birthday to you…_

His cousin, sitting in the chair at the head of the table, was bouncing in his seat with delight, overjoyed that he'd soon get to open his mountain of gifts. His eyes wide and gleaming with excitement, he leaned forward as the song winded down, ready to blow out the candles after he made his wish.

_Happy birthday, dear Harry…_

Deciding he'd seen enough, Dudley Dursley sighed and turned his back on the spectacle before him, grabbing a broom on his way into the kitchen. They would want him to sweep the floor before his cousin's party guests arrived. He shut the door that separated the kitchen from the dining room, sighing as the last line of the song floated off into the wind, and set to work.

_Happy birthday to you…_

Well, what do you think? Should I continue? It's just that this plot bunny has been bugging me for a while, and I decided it was time to get it out. : ) Review, please!

Torina

hanyoubaka(at)yahoo(dot)com


	2. Chapter 1: Hogwarts Letter

On His Father's Wings

Chapter One: Hogwarts Letter

A sharp rapping sounded on the smaller upstairs bedroom of number four Privet Drive, and Dudley sighed as he stood and slipped on his shoes. He rubbed the sleep from his eyes and blinked blearily at the clock, then spent about twenty seconds trying to figure out why he'd been woken up at five o'clock in the morning. He then turned to his calendar, and sighed. Of course- Harry's birthday party. How could he have forgotten? He stood and walked across the hall to relieve himself, then made his way downstairs. His mother was waiting for him, tapping her foot impatiently. "Hurry up, then," she told him, waving toward a pile of boxes. "You know where the ladder is, hop to." With that, she turned and walked over to the kitchen, where she was baking his cousin's cake.

Releasing a sharp breath that blew his bangs up into the air for a moment, he headed towards the garage and recovered the ladder, balancing the ten foot monstrosity delicately. He set it up next to the dining room table and turned woeful eyes to the large pile of birthday-decoration containing boxes stacked neatly against the wall. He had put them up two days ago for Harry's birthday, but his mother had insisted he take them down as soon as Harry had gone to bed- nothing to clutter her spick-and-span kitchen. And now she was adamant that they were put back up- no matter what inconvenience Dudley was caused by such actions.

Sighing softly and reminding himself that such thoughts were pointless, he returned to the task at hand, reaching into the nearest box and pulling out some birthday tinsel. He was three steps up on the ladder when a sharp cry came from the direction of the front door, and Harry came barreling through the dining room and into the kitchen, jumping up and down excitedly and waving around a piece of paper. Dudley squinted to see what it was, but quickly deemed this unnecessary, as only one thing could possibly have his mum and dad so excited.

Harry had gotten his Hogwarts letter.

Dudley sighed and continued up the ladder, doing his best to tune out the happy family sounds coming from the next room. His parents had always been like this when it came to Harry's magic- overly excitable over every little thing that happened. When he'd first done accidental magic at the age of three, causing a very expensive vase to explode in anger, 'Auntie 'Tunia' had not, as expected, sent the boy to his room, but had instead engulfed him in a great bear hug, exclaiming at what a good boy he was and calling for Vernon to come look at what her 'widdle Hawwy' had done.

Petunia Dursley had been jealous of her sister at first, but her fascination for magic had quickly overridden that. Her whole attitude as a child had changed when she had come to terms with the fact that her sister was a witch- her posture had altered, she had held her head high, and she had walked with pride to have a magical being in the family. None of her muggle friends had known why she acted this way, of course, but that hadn't stopped her from feeling smugly superior- she knew something they didn't. Her little sister was special.

And so was Harry.

Dudley knew this from listening to bedtime stories as a child. At first Petunia had been hopeful that both children would be magical- after all, magic often skipped a generation- but a visit from Headmaster Dumbledore when the boys were six had changed that. He had offered each child a lemon drop, which they had each eagerly accepted, and then handed Harry a small, translucent globe and asked him to close his eyes and concentrate on something that made him happy. The globe had lit up instantly, and Dumbledore had been delighted to inform the proud surrogate parents that their Harry was indeed magical, and a powerful wizard at that. Dudley had joined in on the group hug that ensued afterward- after all, he was certain that he was gifted as well. Harry gave the ball back to Dumbledore, who handed it to Dudley with the same instructions. Dudley had smiled and clasped the ball in his hands, closing his eyes in concentration, remembering the first time Harry had loosed accidental magic on him and levitated him four feet off the ground. The sensation of weightlessness had made him breathless, and he knew then that he couldn't_ wait_ to be a wizard. To be able to fly like that all the time would be a dream come true… He opened his eyes then, confident he would see the ball glowing, and frowned in confusion when nothing happened. Some of the happiness in his family's eyes had dimmed, and Dumbledore was frowning. The wizened man urged him to try again, however, and this time he thought of how he loved to play pretend with his cousin, with both of them pretending they were at Hogwarts doing real, big people magic. His aunt didn't know much about the school beyond what her sister had told her, so most of their games were pure guesswork, but that was what made it so much fun. They knew that their Hogwarts was nothing like the real one, and this gave them a thrill of excitement every time they played. They never ran out of ideas when creating their very own school of Witchcraft and Wizardry, and they knew that when they were eleven they would get to explore the whole place all over again, because it would be completely different. Imagination was Harry's forte, but Dudley had come up with his fair share of things- the dank school dungeons being his favorite. He giggled once as he remembered the look on Harry's face when his mum told them the next day that there really were dungeons at Hogwarts, and opened his eyes again. Still nothing.

Harry, Vernon, and Petunia were looking worried now, and Dumbledore was shaking his head. He plucked the ball from the boy's fingers and said softly, "I'm sorry, Mr. and Mrs. Dursley. Your son has no magic." The memories of the next few hours were a blur for Dudley, and he suspected that he didn't want to remember them. The crestfallen looks on the faces of his family in the moments afterward were enough.

So whatever pleading that his parents had done with Dumbledore over the course of the next few days, there was nothing he could do- the test was foolproof, and, as Petunia knew well, it wasn't possible to just give someone magic. They had to be born with the gift. Dudley was stuck.

The next year or two saw Dudley's family gradually distancing themselves from him. He was moved out of the room he shared with Harry into the one next to it, which was decidedly smaller. His mother and father asked him to do things more often than Harry, whom they often treated as their favorite. When both he and Harry needed to be somewhere at the same time, it was always Harry's needs that were seen to first. But the change that hurt Dudley the most was that Harry didn't play Hogwarts with him anymore.

His cousin was no longer his friend.

Over time, Dudley learned to accept the fact that his family didn't see him as such. It hurt him, of course, to be so ostracized- he was human, after all- but he had become accustomed to his place in life. He wasn't mistreated, per se- he was given nice clothes, and good food, and when it didn't inconvenience them they tried to get him the things they wanted. In return, when they needed something done he was to do it- and without complaining. It was a fair enough argument, and Dudley had long given up on wishing for more.

His mother called for him from the living room, and he walked back down the ladder, put the tinsel into the box, and sighed. He stood there a moment, fortifying himself for what was to come, and plastered a fake smile on his face. It was time to congratulate his cousin, for being everything Dudley had ever dreamed of being.

Well, what do you think, all? Shorter than promised, yes, but I wrote it six days after last update! That's got to be some kind of record: ) Tell me what you think, please, because I love feedback!

And as to whether or not Dudley will ever become a wizard… Well, you'll just have to wait and see. Actually, I'm going to have a _**CONTEST **_concerning this- review with your name and house, and whether or not you think Dudley will be a wizard. I'm just doing this as an experiment, but I've always enjoyed participating in things like this, and it's just _fun_ to see your house win. Plus I'm curious as to what you all think. : )

**Email me if you want to know when this story updates**! And click on my profile to join my yahoo group!  
Torina


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